Flexural rigidity(EI) and deflection characteristics of rice stalks were studied to investigate the mechanical interaction between a rice stalk and a combine reel in harvesting. Deflection of a rice stalk caused by reel operation is so large that conventional equation of small deflection fer elastic beam cannot be applied to the study of deflection characteristics. Therefore, an equation of large deflection for elastic beam was introduced in this study. Feasibility of this equation was examined by comparing theoretical calculation with the measured results for piano wire, and by the relationship between deflection and load acting on a rice stalk which was presumed by this equation. Results showed that the large deflection equation could predict the measurement data quite well. From this research, the following results were obtained. 1. Flexural rigidity(EI) calculated from the equation of large deflection was 4.0l0N(diameter 1.4mm, deflection 300mm) while the actual EI value of a piano wire(diameter 1.4mm) was 3.910N. 2. The relationship between deflection and load acting on a rice stalk could be presumed by the large deflection equation. Flexural rigidity values of tested rice stalks calculated from the equation of large deflection were 1.6∼2.4 l0N(Hwa sung), 2.7∼3.5 l0N(Il pum) and 1.7∼2.4 l0N(Damakum)

This study was performed to develop an automatic sacking device for the combine harvester which was constituted input/output signal system, controller, delivery device, shooting device, pneumatic system for shooting operation, vibration device fer sacking operation and a new developed sacking bag. A new developed automatic sacking device and new sacking bag were operated well in general. And they were possible to develop a new combine to reduce of fatigue, to improve the safety and the performance. In developed device, The optimum delivery velocity of conveyer for sacking was 5.16 mm/sec. In sacking device, sacking discharge was shown 94％ with non-vibration condition and sacking discharge was shown 99％ with vibration condition, respectively.

The objectives of this study were to develop a harvesting gripper for perilla leaves and test its performance, which was a partial work of the automated perilla leaves harvesting system development. The results of this study could be summarized as the followings: The shear forces for harvesting the perilla were measured. The measured results showed that the average shear force required was 12.13N for cutting the petioles attached to the perilla stalks, and the maximum of 17.42N. The inner diameter of air cylinder used was 6mm and the air pressure was maintained as 0.7㎫ during the tests. The time required for cutting perilla leaves could be adjusted by the control program and cutting operation could be done within 1- 10 seconds. The performance tests were conducted to harvest the perilla leaves by the gripper developed. The average success rates of cutting were 72.2％ for the first test, 78.5％ for the second, and 74.2％ for the last. The perilla leaves were not damaged by the gripper The whole system operation could be finished within three seconds except the delay time for dropping harvested leaves.

In Korea, due to its broad efficacy as a systemic insecticide, imidacloprid has been widely used in rice paddies to control sucking insects, soil insects, and some chewing insects and in apple orchards to control various insects pests. To quantify the imidacloprid residue concentrations, samples are assayed in vitro using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays(ELISA). These assays generally require several hours to perform. As a biosensor, a competitive imidacloprid ELISA was modified to measure insecticide concentrations. It was found that a total assay time of 15 min(10-min antibody-antigen binding, and 5-min substrate development) is sufficient for monitoring imidacloprid concentrations. Further work is needed to improve the sensitivity of the measurement protocol.

Computer vision technology has been utilized as one of the most powerful tools to automate various agricultural operations. Though it has demonstrated successful results in various applications, the current status of technology is still for behind the human`s capability typically for the unstructured and variable task environment. In this paper, a man-machine interactive hybrid decision-making system which utilized a concept of tole-operation was proposed to overcome limitations of computer image processing and cognitive capability. Tasks of greenhouse watermelon cultivation such as pruning, watering, pesticide application, and harvest require identification of target object. Identifying water-melons including position data from the field image is very difficult because of the ambiguity among stems, leaves, shades. and fruits, especially when watermelon is covered partly by leaves or stems. Watermelon identification from the cultivation field image transmitted by wireless was selected to realize the proposed concept. The system was designed such that operator(farmer), computer, and machinery share their roles utilizing their maximum merits to accomplish given tasks successfully. And the developed system was composed of the image monitoring and task control module, wireless remote image acquisition and data transmission module, and man-machine interface module. Once task was selected from the task control and monitoring module, the analog signal of the color image of the field was captured and transmitted to the host computer using R.F. module by wireless. Operator communicated with computer through touch screen interface. And then a sequence of algorithms to identify the location and size of the watermelon was performed based on the local image processing. And the system showed practical and feasible way of automation for the volatile bio-production process.

There have been worldwide research and development efforts to automate various processes of bio-production and those efforts will be expanded with priority given to tasks which require high intensive labor or produce high value-added product and tasks under hostile environment. In the field of bio-production capabilities of the versatility and robustness of automated system have been major bottlenecks along with economical efficiency. This paper introduces a new concept of automation based on tole-operation, which can provide solutions to overcome inherent difficulties in automating bio-production processes. Operator(farmer), computer, and automatic machinery share their roles utilizing their maximum merits to accomplish given tasks successfully. Among processes of greenhouse watermelon cultivation tasks such as pruning, watering, pesticide application, and harvest with loading were chosen based on the required labor intensiveness and functional similarities to realize the proposed concept. The developed system was composed of 5 major hardware modules such as wireless remote monitoring and task control module, wireless remote image acquisition and data transmission module, gantry system equipped with 4 d.o.f. Cartesian type robotic manipulator, exchangeable modular type end-effectors, and guided watermelon loading and storage module. The system was operated through the graphic user interface using touch screen monitor and wireless data communication among operator, computer, and machine. The proposed system showed practical and feasible way of automation in the field of volatile bio-production process.

This study was carried out to develop a vacuum nozzle seeder for the automation of large seeds sowing of fruit vegetables and rootstocks. Moreover, the seeding efficiency was examined to find the optimum operating condition considering high precision seeding. The important operating factors for high seeding rate were typically nozzle diameter and absorbing vacuum pressure. The optimum nozzle diameters were found 1.5, 1.5 and 2.0 mm for Chambak, Tuktozwa and Hukjong while the optimum vacuum pressures were 8.0㎪, 10.6㎪ and 5.3㎪, respectively. Under the optimum operating condition, the results indicated that the maximum seeding rates were 97.6％, 98.8％ and 97.6％ respectively for Chambak Tuktozwa and Hukjong. The vibrating acceleration of the hopper did not make any significant effects on the seeding rate when the vacuum pressure reached 8.0㎪ and the sowing rate became higher with lighter seed. As the seed became heavier, the larger diameter of nozzle was recommended 1.5mm of the nozzle diameter was found to be applied for the experimental seeds. The vacuum pressure was also found 8.0㎪ - 13.3㎪ at that time.

This study was carried out to develop a vacuum nozzle seeder for large seeds and performance was tested on seed feeding, arranging. and sowing peformance. The results of this study were as follows： The operation of feeding device of the seeder was programmed to operate a period of setting time after sowing 6 rows. The setting time was decided based on a discharged seed by the angular speed of feeding roller. The arranging accuracy of `tuktozwa`, `hukjong` and `chambak` was 96.4％, 95.2％ and 89.4％ respectively. The working performance was 75.6sheet/hr which was 3.8 times higher than that of manual work. An average seeding rate of 1 grain was 97.8％.

The objectives of this study were to investigate the failure characteristics of a total of 90 parts of tractor driveline, and to predict their average annual demands required to perform the after-sales service. The failure characteristics such as failure mode, mean time between failures, characteristic life and reliability were analyzed using the data collected through the experienced mechanics at the part centers of the tractor manufacturers. The analysis was based on the assumption that the failure distribution follows the Weibull distribution. The average annual demands were also predicted for the replacement parts using the mean time between failures and the renewal theory based on the Weibull distribution. The results of the study revealed that the driveline parts failure was mostly from wearout and their average characteristic life is about 1.760 hours. The estimated mean time between failures was in a range of 670∼3,740 hours and reliability in a range of 40∼60％. The annual replacement demands were in a range of 4∼45 for a service of 100 tractors.